


Amusing Orac

by JackieSBlake7



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7113796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orac decides it needs a holiday</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amusing Orac

From what little Orac had gathered on what had happened in the tracking gallery of Blake's gallery had been Avon and Blake downloading two years' worth of arguments in one go - but nobody would give it the details.  
Everything had worked out: Orac had altered the instructions given to the incoming troops so that "clearing the base "meant "stunning everybody for the official recording and then telling them to take all their things and not clog up the imposition of order procedures." The two groups had thus been able to retrieve much that was useful, as well as salvaging Slave's programming, and key components of the teleport and Stardrive from the Scorpio among other things.  
Orac had been making a running list of potential bases for the group it worked with, and now presented a selection to its companions. It was #not being sentimental# in suggesting ones near beaches like on Aristo, but its top recommendation, a sometime scientific base and its locality met with general approval. Danya was teaching a number of people to swim - not something Orac wished to get involved in. Some of the people found entertainment in exploring the planet or engaged in the process of "stretching their legs" before going on spaceship trips - though their heights did not change as part of the process.

The two groups had successfully merged, with others joining and were discussing their future plans. The consensus was moving towards coordinating the opposition and persuading various sympathetic parties within the administration, partly by manipulating the offical computers. Money was being gained by becoming consultants selling their various services - which, Orac judged, was something they were likely to continue whatever happened: most of them were not natural administrators.  
Avon and Deva created some monitor devices for Orac similar to the one it had had on Aristo and it occasionally followed Blake and the others on their walks - little of the planet was as interesting to the computer as it was to humans. The two computer experts were involved in installing Slave onto another ship's computer and were suitably willing to get involved in the program for developing computer sentients. The first new organic sentients were also being generated, and Orac was looking forward to training them, once essential program-skills such as literacy had been uploaded by their parents.

Then Vila suggested they need a holiday - which caused much discussion and some protest by Blake. That there was general agreement on the idea proved that they needed a holiday or they would have been disagreeing on the subject. Orac then said that making use of pleasure planets would be a way of disguising activities and movements - and the leaders of such planets wanted similar ends to the rebels. 

The problem was trying to find holidays that suited people. Orac sent one of its remote analysis units with Jenna and Tarrant when they went to the Interplanetary Spaceship Show, which resulted in several orders for the device. That these would provide new ways of information gathering for Orac was of no consequence to the users – and the computer decided to encourage visits to such events. The lengthy discussions Jenna, Tarrant, and the others at the show had on seeming trivial items of difference on the various ships, other than the purely scientific ones, were of no interest to Orac.  
Later it took Vila some time – when he had stopped laughing – to explain precisely what a toyboy was, why Jenna had used the term, and #what# Tarrant’s comments on the matter meant. Somewhat to Orac’s puzzlement the so-called "technical discussion" that followed between the two pilots did not include the computer. Vila again seemed amused when Orac raised the matter, but refused to discuss the joke. When Blake was asked his response appeared to fit the dictionary definition of sulking. Fortunately Orac was able to promptly locate another leader of an independent planet for Blake to negotiate with, which provided a sufficient distraction until he was able to start his own discussions. The novelty of rebel groups seeking an alliance or providing help and then *going away* – unlike the Federation forces – seemed to attract such local leaders to alliances. What Orac could not understand was why the leaders tended to be effusive in their suggestions that Blake come again some time, but rarely actually issued invitations for such contacts.

Avon and Deva went on computer-equipment hunting expeditions – Orac sometimes suspected that they were up to something that should be discouraged when they started acquiring items that were several generations behind the equipment that Tarrial cells had replaced on a frequency that suggested more than “mere curiosity” or provision of access to alternative systems was involved. By definition computers obscure to the Federation networks could not be directly accessed by Orac, and the computer had a vague fear that an alternative and completely incompatible computer architecture might be developed. However it was able to locate a computer research facility where it could place a “conversion devices development project” and whose occupants were happy to combine resources and benefit from developments, and anything that they could find in making use of such old resources. Avon and Deva were more than willing to pursue and promote the project once it had been brought to their attention, and also contacting some of those Ensor had worked with over the years. Complex gambling programs – as suggested by Belkov – were of some interest, but not given priority. Gambit had been reconstituted and some of its suggestions were of merit - while others had to be investigated to confirm that they #were# undignified for any self-respecting computer. Avon’s jocular suggestion that when they had won the rebellion, “however that was defined” they should take up computer rights would be firmly encouraged. Blake and some of the other rebels were persuaded of the merits of this project, possibly because they considered administering the Federation as much a waste of their capabilities as it was of Orac’s.

Soolin suggested that they hire a number of best selling writers to do some of the work for them: their plots were sometimes more believable than many of the rebels’ proposals, and would confuse the Federation authorities as well. Orac considered the matter and decided to co-operate with the writers on its own account, in a mutually beneficial relationship. For some obscure reasons the stories #it# wrote and arranged to be published were not successful – presumably because there were not yet enough sentient computers to generate a market - all the more reason to engage in technical discussions to create more such. 

While the group were visiting a more developed holiday planet as part of their latest strategy Soolin passed the time by visiting a spa, which she thoroughly enjoyed – as did the others who followed her suggestion. Even Avon went, looking on his return, as someone said, like a cat that suspected it had been through something slightly undignified even if pleased with the result. Unfortunately Orac’s monitor and casing were not built to cater for steam rooms at high temperatures or hot bubbling water filled with exotic (and supposedly invigorating) compounds, and many of the other treatments were equally unsuitable for computers. (It was pursuing the topic #purely for research purposes#.) Vila and Deva joked about the monitor on its return from the venture, and Orac’s comment that it had seen more peculiar things when it had accessed the computers of Space City and Freedom City led to interesting discussions. It also, acquired a whole collection of words and ideas not previously encountered – and spotted another gap in the sentient computers market. Orac had been slightly surprised at the rapidity of the suggestion, once made, being taken up.

Klyn, slightly irritated with the regular questions Orac had posed, as she enjoyed the holiday brochures as a means of relaxation, suggested that Orac ‘be a good little computer, get in touch with Krantor for ideas, and create a holiday centre specifically for computers like itself.’ Holiday places, Orac was discovering, generally did not cater for computers – or even, mostly, for robots of various kinds. (Orac was prepared to cooperate with such constructs when the need arose.) Blake added, on the discussion being continued in his presence, that they should win the rebellion *first* before Orac started amusing itself with trivialities.

Orac, getting somewhat bored with the rebels’ attempts to rearrange the existing system to suit their interests, decided to arrange everything, with the help of the other sentient constructs. Creating a system that was flexible enough to accommodate the wishes of the various rebel and other interest groups, the vast majority of organic sentients who wished to pursue their own interests without undue official bothering and others within the domains of the Federation and which would allow the use on a temporally-limited basis of another Servalan should there be a major catastrophe or other event requiring it, was a challenge the computers enjoyed. Dealing with Servalan-Sleer herself was a minor necessity - resolved by setting non-sentient computers to "maximum non-cooperation mode" and offering her promotions that were increasingly distant from Earth and not quite suited to her limited skill-set. Other senior administration figures were treated to the same procedures.

What puzzled the sentient constructs, once a fully diverse Federation system where a range of models of government were in operation was uploaded was that organic sentients seemed to want to insert often trivial changes, which were often reverted or otherwise modified within months - and those who expressed preferences for different types of structure than the one in which they were operating rarely transferred themselves to one that seemingly suited them more.

Most of the sometime rebels and opposition persons either reverted to their previous job-configurations or found new ones within the systems that emerged - "political consultants and analysts" seemed to be a popular choice. There was a certain take up of the concept of "computer sentient rights" - as Orac explained to Avon, Deva and Blake they were all effectively the same age but it did not have the same rights as them.  
The computer now felt it could finally have a holiday - but its current organic companions had decided to give emphasis to an otherwise commendable interest in exploring, and in "playing" with their newer organic sentients - who appeared to be similar models to the existing ones. The function of such "games" as hide and seek, or tag defied computer logic - though treasure hunts and word games were logical.

****

Orac thoroughly enjoyed Computer Holiday World, even if it did own it and had had to create it from the beginning. It had been a long time since the computer had been *properly* cleaned and connections reattached as they should be. Furthermore all programming had been rechecked, and some irritating glitches removed and minor improvements – and they were *very* minor – included. The latest developments in computer technology were constantly monitored, so that Orac would never find itself in the position where it could not be given the necessary upgrades.   
The full range of computer games was now available in Computer Holiday World, and the range of entertainments where computers were given their rightful place centre stage were being developed. It was an interesting challenge creating museums and art galleries that were directed at the tastes of the computers – Sarkoff, no longer President of Lindor, had accepted the challenge of developing them, and had made a few suggestions 

Now it faced a minor problem: the people necessary to bring computers on holiday were complaining about their limited accommodation and amusements.  
As Orac explained repeatedly – they were being given considerably better facilities than computers were given at *their* resorts. They were perfectly at liberty to develop their own complex on this planet. In fact, if any of them wished to take on a managerial role in the Computer Holiday World Interplanetary Corporation, there would be some opportunities shortly. An arrangement had been negotiated with Krantor over the reassignment of Space Command and Spaceworld, and there were other places under consideration.

Now, given all the work involved in setting up Computer Holiday World, Orac needed another holiday.

**Author's Note:**

> The four Orac stories - Just a Box of Flashing Lights, Orac's Nightmare, Boy's Toys and this are independent but could form a single (slightly overlapping) arc


End file.
